Not only is Novella super fun, but she LOVES to help. She is constantly saying, “Nana help! Nana help!” with everything. So when you pipe up the words, “Novella, I need help”, she literally comes running to see what you need help with! I figure it gives  her a sense of direction, as it is more than play to her, and she shows genuine interest, it is helping to teach her responsibility, and should the day come that we choose to dole out a chores list, she will be ready to go! It is so fun, even though sometimes her help can be counterproductive at times, it is truly amazing to watch her learn and develop these new skills. Here are some of Novella’s favorite jobs to help with around the house.

*Throwing dirty laundry down the laundry chute. We have had a lock on it since we moved in because once she realized things disappeared magically, she began throwing toys down, so we bought a munchkin lock, attached it and haven’t had a problem since (we have one on the trash can and the toilet as well, although we don’t use either of those regularly anymore). If you empty the hampers by the laundry chute, and say those magic words she comes over and puts every piece of laundry down the chute. She loves to say who each article of clothing belongs too, “papa sock”, one of the funniest is when she finds a bra, she inspects it and says, “ohhhh wow! momma!!!”

*Loading the dishwasher, although this is good for her to learn, the dishes end up stacked rather than in their designated spots most of the time.

*Emptying the dishwasher, she will hand us one piece at a time, using both hands and being very careful, she tells us what each things is, “Nana’s bowl, plate, spoon, etc”.

*Making the bed, she doesn’t really help with this at all, she pulls the sheets down and keeps you from folding the blankets, but she is determined every morning to “help”

*Folding laundry, this has been one of my new favorites, for a long time it was Novella pulling the clean clothes out and moving them to another laundry basket, or unfolding that which was already folded by me. So I decided to give her some of her own jobs to help with the folding process. She will find all of the wipes (we do cloth wipes as napkins, tissues, wipes (but I wash those with the diapers), etc), so she finds all of the wipes and stacks them into a pile, all while telling me what color they are (everything is purple right now, so I help her know what color they really are as she stacks), then she proceeds to find every clean sock in the basket. After she finds all of the wipes and socks then she finds the bibs. After all of this, she will sit down with the pile of socks and sort them into three piles,  papa, momma and Novella. We are working on matching the socks after we put them into piles, but sometimes by this point she is bored with laundry and won’t focus, so she goes and plays instead.

*BUTTONS… if there is a button that NEEDS to be pushed, she wants to be the one to push it! She will help me load the washer and dryer, move laundry back and forth, and then I tell her which buttons to push to properly start each machine. If a water bottle (we love our camelbak eddy’s in this house) needs to be filled, she wants to push the button on the fridge to fill it. The dishwasher is the same thing, once it is ready to go, she likes to put the soap pod into the holder, close the little door, then close up the dishwasher and she knows just which buttons to push to make it go on a normal, heated dry. She is one smart cookie!

*Washing dishes – I was given a step stool for the kitchen years ago from my Grandmother, a stool that has followed me on many a move, but has always been extremely useful! Novella likes to call it her stool now, as she gets to use it when she helps me bake, or wash dishes. She will one day know how to really wash, rinse and dry dishes, but for now, wearing an apron and splashing around in the bubbly water is more than enough fun for her, and keeps her happy while her momma does other chores that Novella cannot quite help out with yet.

*Vacuuming – She does not run the real vacuum, but she has a toy one, and as soon as she sees you get the real one out, she runs to get hers! She will follow us around the house all day long vacuuming if we let her. She actually gets a little upset when we put away our vacuum, because she is having so much fun.

*Cleaning – Although I do not give her cleaning product to clean with, she will get a rag and wipe the bathtub with me, or dust a surface. She says, “Nana clean, Nana clean with wag”. It is pretty special to have a little cleaning buddy follow me around.

*Picking up – Believe it or not, she picks up after herself, all we have to do (sometimes) is ask her to clean up her toys, we have a little song that we made up, “clean up, clean up, clean up all your toys, clean them up, pick them up, put up all your toys”, and although she cannot fully sing the song, when you ask her to start cleaning up, she sings, “clean, clean, clean”. So I would say she gets it. She picks up everything, and she knows each toy has its own home, if she needs help with something she says, “help peas”.

I have to say, that although sometimes the help is not very “helpful” in fact. Her willingness to be by my side to try her best means the world to me. I feel like we are instilling good values in her, and teaching her responsibilities. She makes me so proud, and I love her so much! My prayer is that this helpful and willing heart that she has will one day do the work of the Lord to help others in need. She is so caring, and empathetic, and ready to help at any beckon call. I truly feel that these are gifts that God has given her, and it will be amazing to see how he grows these gifts in her as she becomes a woman of God one day. What a joy this puts in my heart to already begin to see a glimpse of what he has in store for our precious little girl!